Should Nannies Be Given Personality Tests?

Nanny Agency Screens Nannies for Emotional Stability and Other Personality Risks

After the Krim murder case in Manhattan where a nanny recently killed two of her charges there has been much discussion on what parents and nanny placement agencies can do to ensure they are hiring a stable nanny. On social media nannies, parents, and nanny placement agency staff have been debating whether a criminal background check is enough to ensure a nanny candidate is the best choice to care for children. Some nannies have admitted they would be willing to take personality tests before being hired if a nanny placement agency or the parents asked them to do so.

One nanny placement agency, the Cambridge Nanny Group, headquartered in Chicago, IL has announced they will be testing their domestic applicants to take such tests. The Cambridge Nanny Group has partnered with Criteria Corporation to test nanny and domestic applicants who apply for employment through their agency. Criteria Corporation is a leader in web-based pre-employment testing.

“We are pleased to announce today Criteria Corporation as our business partner for pre-employment testing, says Ingrid Kellaghan, CEO of Cambridge Nanny Group. "We identified a need for integrity tests and personality measures that can help families increase their chances of hiring reliable, dedicated, trustworthy, and emotionally stable employees," said Ingrid Kellaghan. "We believe that Criteria Corp’s scientific and data driven methodologies align well with Cambridge Nanny Group commitment to recruiting the highest caliber nannies and domestic employees.”

The Criteria Assessments were developed and guided by it’s Scientific Advisory Board, which includes several of the world’s foremost experts in cognitive psychology, psychometrics, and statistics. “In addition to the company's own internal product development efforts, they have collaborated with renowned academic institutions and research organizations to further their test development and test validation efforts. We value their commitment to data reliability,” explains Kellaghan.

The Cambridge Nanny Group pre-employment testing platform launched two months ago. “We've had the opportunity to carefully evaluate and validate findings,” say’s Kellaghan. “It’s best in class usability and real time scoring provides valuable insights to help us make crucial hiring decisions. Whether it's predicting a person's propensity for theft or fraud or flagging candidates who are emotional unstable or are unable to handle stress we are very pleased with it's accuracy."

“We understand that choosing a nanny is the most important hiring decision a parent will ever make. Coupling our robust background check and vetting processes with scientific driven pre-employment testing allows client families to be completely confident and feel safe about their hiring decisions. We feel very good about that.” say’s Kellaghan.

Click here to learn more about the Cambridge Nanny Group. Click here to learn more about Criteria Corporation testing.